native who sat between us. He
started up, as if stung by an adder; while the whole company, manifesting
an equal degree of horror, simultaneously screamed out "Taboo!" I never
again perpetrated a similar piece of ill-manners, which, indeed, was
forbidden by the canons of good breeding, as well as by the mandates of
the taboo. But it was not always so easy to perceive wherein you had
contravened the spirit of this institution. I was many times called to
order, if I may use the phrase, when I could not for the life of me
conjecture what particular offence I had committed.

One day I was strolling through a secluded portion of the valley, and
hearing the musical sound of the cloth-mallet at a little distance, I
turned down a path that conducted me in a few moments to a house where
there were some half-dozen girls employed in making tappa. This was an
operation I had frequently witnessed, and had handled the bark in all the
various stages of its preparation. On the present occasion the females
were intent upon their occupation, and after looking up and talking gaily
to me for a few moments, they resumed their employment. I regarded them
for awhile in silence, and then, carelessly picking up a handful of the
material that lay around, proceeded unconsciously to pick it apart. While
thus engaged, I was suddenly startled by a scream, like that of a whole
boarding-school of young ladies just on the point of going into hysterics.
Leaping up with the idea of seeing a score of Happar warriors about to
perform anew the Sabine atrocity, I found myself confronted by the company
of girls, who, having dropped their work, stood before me with starting
eyes, swelling bosoms, and fingers pointed in horror towards me.

Thinking that some venomous reptile must be concealed in the bark which I
held in my hand, I began cautiously to separate and examine it. Whilst I
did so the horrified girls redoubled their shrieks. Their wild cries and
frightened motions actually alarmed me, and throwing down the tappa, I was
about to rush from the house, when in the same instant their clamours
ceased, and one of them, seizing me by the arm, pointed to the broken
fibres that had just fallen from my grasp, and screamed in my ears the
fatal word "Taboo!"

I subsequently found out that the fabric they were engaged in making was
of a peculiar kind, destined to be worn on the heads of the females, and
through every stage of its manufacture was guarded by a vigor